There's one thing not to move the writ for a by-election, quite another to actively block someone else trying to do it.
The SNP tried to move the writ for the Glasgow North East by-election a wee while ago in the House of Commons. As far as I could tell, all the opposition parties, even the Tories, supported them, but Labour lodged a counter motion moving next business.
In the end, Labour managed to defeat the opposition by 111 votes, but Paul Waugh, the Evening Standard reporter, tweeted that if the SNP had tipped off the Tories and Lib Dems, the result might have been different.
"The SNP ambush fails by 111 votes. If they had got their act together and tipped off Tories and LDems, they might have forced Aug byelectn.
2 minutes ago from web"
Maybe the SNP MPs should watch this episode of the West Wing before they try anything like that again.
It was a good idea, though, credit where it's due, and ultimately win win because we can all now say that Labour, not just through inertia, but actively went out of their way to keep the people of Glasgow North East without an MP for at least another 3.5 months.
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4 comments:
thanks for update
I think you and Paul Waugh rather miss the point (or give the SNP too much credit). Losing the vote but winning the high ground and the headlines is probably the SNP's preferred result. Yes the by-election should be sooner than Nov but arguably it is the Nationalists who benefit the most from a later poll as, as you may have noticed, this wasn't the best of weeks for Team SNP! PS love that West Wing episode.
Jeff if that really is the case then the SNP are also playing the by election and the moving of the writ for political ends just as they were accusing Labour of doing. Therefore they would lose the moral high ground.
Only through the eyes of political geniuses like yourself Stephen.
Thankfully not everyone is blessed with your mercurial talent.
The right approach just happened to coincide with (what I think was) the SNP's preferred approach. No "playing", just doing the right thing and luckily reaping a reward as a bonus.
You may think they lost the moral high ground but I don't think you can argue that the SNP didn't have a great afternoon today.
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